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enTue, 03 Mar 2015 20:23:41 GMTTue, 03 Mar 2015 20:23:41 GMTRev983-83-1Coffeehouse - My First ComputerNot sure if we have done this before but i found a nice pic:

It had tape and cartridge, I can't remember what the keys down the right hand side did. But it did come with a book of code you could bash in to create simple games. The only problem I remember was if you made just a single mistake, you had to type it all out again... That said, I was about 6 years old so my memory is somewhat fuzzy.

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Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:00:02 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/506fd0ce05314bb1aba69f9800b549a6#506fd0ce05314bb1aba69f9800b549a6CaRDiaK83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/CaRDiaK/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerNot actually mine, but the first computer we had in the house:

Not sure it it's the exact same model, but it was an MSX2 and I'm sure we had arrow keys like that. We also had the cartridge slot but I can't recall ever using it for anything (all the software and games we had were on 3.5" disks; the drive is on the side).

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Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:18:09 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/d4d888e7ded742ee9a6b9f9800ba4385#d4d888e7ded742ee9a6b9f9800ba4385Sven Groot83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Sven Groot/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerCommodore VIC-20 wish i had a picture of the addon's i had a home made tape storage interface back then and i soldered two expansion modules together by pulling the rom from one and using a pre-drilled set of holes in the other ones pcb. now that was hacking!]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/76916b65cf024380b11f9f9800e6ccc7#76916b65cf024380b11f9f9800e6ccc7
Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:00:19 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/76916b65cf024380b11f9f9800e6ccc7#76916b65cf024380b11f9f9800e6ccc7figuerres83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/figuerres/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer

I still have it but I don't think the sound works. We sold the C64 but I still have the Amiga 500.

]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/e427d7daa57c4ad2ad0a9f9800e710b0#e427d7daa57c4ad2ad0a9f9800e710b0
Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:01:16 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/e427d7daa57c4ad2ad0a9f9800e710b0#e427d7daa57c4ad2ad0a9f9800e710b0dentaku83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/dentaku/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computerand now I'm using software that emulates the sound of these old machines

And it wasn't until 2002 when the thing was replaced with a far more modern Dell Dimension 8200. So we got a good 6 years out of it, but even by 2001 the performance of the system was abysmal: Office 2000 took ages to load, multitasking was hard (lots of disk swapping), I remember seeing my desktop wallpaper get loaded from disk in slow-motion after I minimised a particularly heavy applications, and 1999/2000/2001 games like Dungeon Keeper 2, Populus 3, The Sims and MDK2 were all near unplayable, but the parents ignored my pleas for more processing horsepower for ages, not until my dad personally suffered the inability to meaningfully surf the web in Windows 98's IE6.

But it hasn't been turned on since 2004 when I tried to install Windows NT 4 Workstation on it - for some reason it just doesn't run, but 95, 98 and ME all run fine - Windows 2000 doesn't work either. It is a mystery.

I still have the 16k RAM pack but gave the ZX81 away a few years ago to a colleague who was mourning the loss of his own.

Hee-hee, Ram Pack Wobble! - I remember that well and how it was solved by a strategically placed piece of Blu-tac!

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, 48k model. Spent the whole summer learning ZX basic on that thing and wrote a few games, including a simple platformer that even had a level designer (but no ability to save levels). Not bad for a 48k of RAM and a novice programmer!

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Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:38:13 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/28b0616fed4d4bbda4c69f9801122b6d#28b0616fed4d4bbda4c69f9801122b6dEndlessBricks83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/OrigamiCar/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@Minh: That was my first "personal" computer. I also had the tape drive, but it was soon replaced after the 1541 disk drive came out. However, the first "family" computer was this one:

It was 3 times as expensive as the C64 but was inferior spec-wise. Seems little has changed. Anyway, it pretty much collected dust after my older brother left for college, while my C64 got a lot of use. This was my favorite game for C64:

@Ian2: The older model of that computer was what was technically the 2nd family computer. It was branded as "Timex Sinclair". However, we owned it only for a few days. We bought it for $50, and then traded it in for a $100 rebate on the C64. Hey, $50 was a lot of money back then.

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Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:09:23 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/4127cf8b6ff440a9a7549f98013bafff#4127cf8b6ff440a9a7549f98013bafffVesuvius83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/vesuvius/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerThe good old PET ... a couple years before the C64.

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Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:20:41 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/d5d3c1381ebb49019b099f98013ecb31#d5d3c1381ebb49019b099f98013ecb31ryanb83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/ryanb/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@ryanb:Sigh, you bring back memories. My first commercial program was written for the Pet. God I remember when 32 K was considered wildly excessive.]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/4550149a9627432693929f98014b1604#4550149a9627432693929f98014b1604
Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:05:26 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/4550149a9627432693929f98014b1604#4550149a9627432693929f98014b1604lensman83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/lensman/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerAh, the memories. My father taught me BASIC and a bit of assembly. Good times.]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/8f916c00630a45b7844c9f98015ffa55#8f916c00630a45b7844c9f98015ffa55
Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:21:30 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/8f916c00630a45b7844c9f98015ffa55#8f916c00630a45b7844c9f98015ffa55Auxon83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Richard.Hein/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer

Yup, a little rubber keyed Speccy here too, albeit the 16K model rather than the 48K. I can still remember wondering how that little black box worked and being amazed and intruiged by all the strange coloured words covering the keyboard.

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Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:29:00 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/8346aebed4c9460589f29f98016209ba#8346aebed4c9460589f29f98016209baAndyC83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/AndyC/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@Richard.Hein: Ah, yes. The good ole Trash 80. Fanboyism has a long history. ]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/a3db5b01cdd5419db6879f98016f3d8b#a3db5b01cdd5419db6879f98016f3d8b
Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:17:04 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/a3db5b01cdd5419db6879f98016f3d8b#a3db5b01cdd5419db6879f98016f3d8bcbae83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/cbae/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/71245b49b0d54c1b8a9a9f9900113163#71245b49b0d54c1b8a9a9f9900113163
Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:02:35 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/71245b49b0d54c1b8a9a9f9900113163#71245b49b0d54c1b8a9a9f9900113163Joshua Ross83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/JoshRoss/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@cbae:That was my first "personal" computer. I also had the tape drive, but it was soon replaced after the 1541 disk drive came out.

Oh, but don't you miss the psychedellic jiffyload... it blew my mind how fast it was... oh, and the colors lol... but maybe nostalgia is clouding the awesomeness that was those 180KB floppies... hehe... and you get the other side for free w/ a cheap notcher

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Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:19:26 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/c5506e7631134b98855e9f9a00ec0da9#c5506e7631134b98855e9f9a00ec0da9Minh83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Minh/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerTruth be told, I secretly lusted after this one (which I haven't seen anyone admitted to have)

Truth be told, I secretly lusted after this one (which I haven't seen anyone admitted to have)

I had the TI-99/4A, with the speech module that allowed a womanly voice to say "great shot captain" and "alien craft advancing" in Parsec. I spent so many hours defending earth from the Urbite menace.

Also, I had Hunt the Wumpus, which was incredible. I still want to make a great modern version of that some day.

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Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:48:10 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/1167741d093f429d95219f9a00f3f17d#1167741d093f429d95219f9a00f3f17dBas83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Bas/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerYeah all the old 2D games are making a comeback

Look at the chart again. 304 is probably the lowest grade of the stainless steels. Compare the price of 304 with aluminum.

But it's not just about the raw material, it's how its processed. Note how I said it would anodised.

Anodizing is one of the cheapest plating processes available. I've got to hand it Apple. They've bamboozled the public into thinking one of the most abundant and cheap elements on Earth is a precious metal.

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Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:49:22 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/7c78fd1f760f4c5184339f9b0146ac1b#7c78fd1f760f4c5184339f9b0146ac1bMasterPie83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/MasterPi/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@MasterPie:I beg to differ. I had the IIgs when I first started college, and it was awesome compared to the various other II flavors. It's the main reason I hate apple, though. They cost an arm and a leg and apple just dropped the entire line after I went broke buying it.

@MasterPie:I beg to differ. I had the IIgs when I first started college, and it was awesome compared to the various other II flavors. It's the main reason I hate apple, though. They cost an arm and a leg and apple just dropped the entire line after I went broke buying it.

The good news is that you still have one arm and one leg to go with that bitter Apple taste in your mouth. Bad dog!

@MasterPie:I beg to differ. I had the IIgs when I first started college, and it was awesome compared to the various other II flavors. It's the main reason I hate apple, though. They cost an arm and a leg and apple just dropped the entire line after I went broke buying it.

Okay, maybe I am a little cool...the replacement to this machine was this (possibly even older machine)

It's kind of funny, too. I credit the Apple II with my love of PCs. It had all those slots that just needed fillin' and while the Mac was pretty, it wasn't as much of a hands-on type machine. If you open a standard ATX machine, lay it on it's side, and squint a bit, it looks like this:

It's kind of funny, too. I credit the Apple II with my love of PCs. It had all those slots that just needed fillin' and while the Mac was pretty, it wasn't as much of a hands-on type machine. If you open a standard ATX machine, lay it on it's side, and squint a bit, it looks like this:

Ah, the memories. My father taught me BASIC and a bit of assembly. Good times.

+1

though the one pictured here has an "F" motherboard. My first one had an "E" motherboard.

I really shouldn't remember these things.

I remember if you typed in CLS(0), you would get "MICROSOFT" printed to the screen.

good times, good times

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Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:21:13 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/51aaecbb22904221a2da9f9c0005d408#51aaecbb22904221a2da9f9c0005d408Geoffrey83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Geoffreyk/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerNo pics, as that machine is long gone.. It was a C64 with a 1541 that even got me into a bit of 'hacking' as a member of "Ball Bros" group. I remember realigning my 1541 so many times thanks to one copy protection that, if improperly 'hacked' would bang your disk drive head into the stopper until the alignment was hosed. So, I wrote an alignment program for it. Also, this may be interesting to those still trying to keep theirs alive, many of the chips, including the SID chip, don't need to be unsoldered to be replaced.. simply place the new chip over the old and solder overtop after verifying it works. Most of the chips stuck to a 'held low" state for an inverse 1/0 logic, so most signals are overridden by the logic of the working chip. Just an FYI.]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/e4d63f827a074df4bd559f9d003e5136#e4d63f827a074df4bd559f9d003e5136
Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:46:53 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/e4d63f827a074df4bd559f9d003e5136#e4d63f827a074df4bd559f9d003e5136Mark83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/TechShark/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerAnother machine I had, a bit later than the C64 was an Apricot.. It didn't do much (for me) but had the first 3 1/2 floppy and IR keyboard I'd ever seen. Anyone know about what the heck that thing was/did? The thing was beautiful, even by today's standards, but TBH, I was of the IBM PC and Franklin ACE mindset by that time. Heh, and 3 1/2 inch floppies were pretty expensive.]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/c8daeea745354f0dab1a9f9d00423a1a#c8daeea745354f0dab1a9f9d00423a1a
Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:01:07 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/c8daeea745354f0dab1a9f9d00423a1a#c8daeea745354f0dab1a9f9d00423a1aMark83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/TechShark/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer

No pics, as that machine is long gone.. It was a C64 with a 1541 that even got me into a bit of 'hacking' as a member of "Ball Bros" group. I remember realigning my 1541 so many times thanks to one copy protection that, if improperly 'hacked' would bang your disk drive head into the stopper until the alignment was hosed. So, I wrote an alignment program for it. Also, this may be interesting to those still trying to keep theirs alive, many of the chips, including the SID chip, don't need to be unsoldered to be replaced.. simply place the new chip over the old and solder overtop after verifying it works. Most of the chips stuck to a 'held low" state for an inverse 1/0 logic, so most signals are overridden by the logic of the working chip. Just an FYI.

I remember that copy protection. I had to bringing my drive to some guy who did the realignment for something like $20. I think he was making a fortune from all the drives he was fixing.

EDIT: For a bit of background, though... I actually had to use factory diskettes, and write my alignment software around some very poor feedback the drive offered, and had to write it in MLX (machine language editor, by Compute's Gazette (wow my memory isn't that bad!) to get decent timing. Once you had a copy of my program, it was two screwdrivers and a lot of guts to break the lock-tite on the alignment screws. I like to hope I kept some people happy by not having to replace the entire drive.

After that protection came the pin-"poke" method of damaging a known sector of a disk. The protection relied on writing to that exact damaged area (factory disks used a laser, i used a pin), and expecting unreadable data. That took mad skillz. I wrote a few progs to redirect that to a place of known damaged area, and then had to write /parameter files to find and use that area. WOW, this takes me back.. such a cool time.

PS - Sorry about that darn Rambo game. I still (to this day) wonder what they did as a protection scheme past the 3rd level. That was downright good protection. (anyone?)

Until next time, here's a sound for you.. Veeeeerowww, dit,dit,dit,dit,dit... Veeeeeeeerowww, dit,dit, dit, dit, dit... (Quick, pull the disk, the drive is dive-bombing the stopper!)

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Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:09:31 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/3e52ce660a2545d1b6d19f9d00448846#3e52ce660a2545d1b6d19f9d00448846Mark83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/TechShark/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerAnyone remember the first semblance of an MP3-similar player? My first experience was (and I did not write it) a C64 program that allowed you to place a real music casette into the datasette player of the Commodore, press Play, and digitally record a 10 second sample. I was amazed listening to my lil junky computer loop ZZ Top's Slip Inside My Sleeping Bag... That was a true turning point for me, personally.

That, outside of 24+ hour daynights programming the SID with endless phonetics for it to correctly speak an entire sentence (almost) flawlessly. That quickly evolved into the IBM PC COVOX serial port loopback connected mumbo jumbo with some odd talking parrot (or was the parrot part of a MediaVision package?)... ugh.

Anyone remember the first semblance of an MP3-similar player? My first experience was (and I did not write it) a C64 program that allowed you to place a real music casette into the datasette player of the Commodore, press Play, and digitally record a 10 second sample. I was amazed listening to my lil junky computer loop ZZ Top's Slip Inside My Sleeping Bag... That was a true turning point for me, personally.

That, outside of 24+ hour daynights programming the SID with endless phonetics for it to correctly speak an entire sentence (almost) flawlessly. That quickly evolved into the IBM PC COVOX serial port loopback connected mumbo jumbo with some odd talking parrot (or was the parrot part of a MediaVision package?)... ugh.

I vaguely remember spending a long time typing in a bunch of lines of hexadecimal numbers copied from an issue of Compute! magazine in order to run a program that did something similar to this. Unfortunately, I never got it to work.

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Wed, 16 Nov 2011 06:12:16 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/f0b810b97f494b62aa2e9f9d0066400a#f0b810b97f494b62aa2e9f9d0066400acbae83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/cbae/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@TechShark: I was always amazed at the way MOD trackers could play something that, if you had a lot of imagination, somewhat sounded like actual digital samples over a PC internal speaker. Okay, they obviously sounded much better on an actual sound card, but it was still pretty amazing compared to the beeps the PC speaker normally produces.

I was pretty late on the whole computer sound front. The first computer with a sound card that I had was a 486, obviously long after sound cards had been around. A friend of mine had an 8086XT with an AdLib card, so I would frequently play games at his house; his PC might be slow compared to the top-of-the-line 286AT that we had at the time, but the games sounded much better!

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Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:56:54 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/48fbbb8807094d1ca4c39f9d0082fc9a#48fbbb8807094d1ca4c39f9d0082fc9aSven Groot83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Sven Groot/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@TechShark, damn! That's hardcore. I had to MLX an assember w/ this book, then I can LDA to my heart's content

@TechShark, damn! That's hardcore. I had to MLX an assember w/ this book, then I can LDA to my heart's content

one of them old compute books was for the C=128 and had a macro assembler listed in hex that i keyed in and used to do assembly on the 128 - woot!! plus i had a C compliler from Spinaker software and i could use the C code to call the assembly code ... that was some fun times !

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Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:31:35 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/9b498dc8a126444eb5929f9d00dee8f3#9b498dc8a126444eb5929f9d00dee8f3figuerres83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/figuerres/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@figuerres, I knew they had C & Pascal compilers, but I hadn't realized the power of a compiled language back then. I mean how can you beat Assembly? Although, in 64K, maybe you can't]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/fdec0ad908e34ff4967e9f9d00e715b4#fdec0ad908e34ff4967e9f9d00e715b4
Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:01:21 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/fdec0ad908e34ff4967e9f9d00e715b4#fdec0ad908e34ff4967e9f9d00e715b4Minh83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Minh/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer

Not exactly, but there was an old game for the apple II line that was basically a centipede ripoff. Most of the program's content was taken up with what sounded like a 2 bit sample of someone screaming. It would play whenever you died and it was AWESOME!!!!!!

Not exactly, but there was an old game for the apple II line that was basically a centipede ripoff. Most of the program's content was taken up with what sounded like a 2 bit sample of someone screaming. It would play whenever you died and it was AWESOME!!!!!!

THIS is the best Apple II game evar! (Wait for the sound. There actually is sound.)

I think almost every computer geek kid in the school had a copy of this game.

one of them old compute books was for the C=128 and had a macro assembler listed in hex that i keyed in and used to do assembly on the 128 - woot!! plus i had a C compliler from Spinaker software and i could use the C code to call the assembly code ... that was some fun times !

I still remember trying to hand-code Z80 with a bunch of POKEs, sometimes it worked but more often than not it failed miserably. It was that which eventually led to me writing an Assembler in BASIC so that I could concentrate on doing the code and let the computer worry about calculating all the right jump offsets and what have you. Did lead to some exciting debugging sessions though, is it my assembly code or my assembler that has a bug?

I always wondered about the perforated square patch to the left of the keyboard ...

The patch had a ROM socket behind it.

The first code I ever got paid for was for the BBC B, at the grand age of 14 I had written a ROM for a Watford electronics EEPROM board which allowed minimicked the BBC Master *FX commands for burning their ROMs. It got printed over about 15 pages over two issues in some computer magazine and I think I got £10 for it.

I suppose the statute of limitations has expired by now, but back in the day, I doubt I ever bought any software. There was an established 'computer club' that would meet once or twice a month that was really just a swap meet to trade games and other software. I doubt it would have been so blatant in the US, but this was overseas on a military base, so there really wasn't any fear of getting in trouble.

I seem to recall there was disk dupe software out there, too, that would recreate 'bad sectors' so if the game depended on a bad sector as it's copy protection, it would still work.

That's kind of why I tend to avoid torrenting stuff, now. Back then I couldn't afford it, so in a twisted way, it wasn't as bad. Now, though, I'd just feel sleazy.

I still remember trying to hand-code Z80 with a bunch of POKEs, sometimes it worked but more often than not it failed miserably. ...exciting debugging sessions though

Surely then you (at least once) decided your POKE'd assembly was good-enough to execute without first saving to tape (takes too long you know)... hung the machine (or worse) and had to start all over :-/

]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/3339fb90c2154b4d9f069f9d015b7561#3339fb90c2154b4d9f069f9d015b7561
Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:05:03 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/3339fb90c2154b4d9f069f9d015b7561#3339fb90c2154b4d9f069f9d015b7561Go Microsoft !!!!!!!83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Dovella/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@ScottWelker:I had to drag that Compaq all over the country. Its also a heavy carry on. At least it was pre -9/11 so security was alot easier. I was happy when the toshiba laptops came out. ]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/c8f2d4bc10a9424a9b7c9f9d01696c4d#c8f2d4bc10a9424a9b7c9f9d01696c4d
Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:55:54 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/c8f2d4bc10a9424a9b7c9f9d01696c4d#c8f2d4bc10a9424a9b7c9f9d01696c4dTomboRombo83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/TomboRombo/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@cbae, this blew my mind w/ the speech recording

Surely then you (at least once) decided your POKE'd assembly was good-enough to execute without first saving to tape (takes too long you know)... hung the machine (or worse) and had to start all over :-/

Obviously, because saving stuff to tape was so slow and I was naturally absolutely 100% positive is was going to work just fine, this time. Most often, it didn't!

Indeed. If you haven't type in a eight page hex listing from a badly reproduced and barely legible dot matrix printout that inevitably contains numerous errors (some of which may or may not get "fixed" in a future magazine issue) then frankly you have no business calling yourself a programmer.

Obviously, because saving stuff to tape was so slow and I was naturally absolutely 100% positive is was going to work just fine, this time. Most often, it didn't!

Those were the days... and yet we kept that optimism. Still do. THIS TIME!! It'll work!!

Developers must be the most optimistic people on the planet. If we were realistic we'd probably have walked away.

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Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:35:19 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/fcc08344fc6447b6b7429f9f0009b3a6#fcc08344fc6447b6b7429f9f0009b3a6ScottWelker83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/ScottWelker/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer@AndyC: Guess that counts me out, then. I did type in long BASIC listings from the newspaper's IT section, though. ]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/22ee5b38f56c4ca8b4909f9f0027cddd#22ee5b38f56c4ca8b4909f9f0027cddd
Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:24:55 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/22ee5b38f56c4ca8b4909f9f0027cddd#22ee5b38f56c4ca8b4909f9f0027cdddSven Groot83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Sven Groot/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First ComputerI remember typing an eight page listing from a TI-99 4/A book to make a slot machine. Also, recording a listing that was being broadcast over the radio and once, from an actual record.]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/4463dffdeac243b7814b9f9f00d68151#4463dffdeac243b7814b9f9f00d68151
Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:00:59 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/My-First-Computer/4463dffdeac243b7814b9f9f00d68151#4463dffdeac243b7814b9f9f00d68151Bas83http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Bas/Discussions/RSSCoffeehouse - My First Computer

Indeed. If you haven't type in a eight page hex listing from a badly reproduced and barely legible dot matrix printout that inevitably contains numerous errors (some of which may or may not get "fixed" in a future magazine issue) then frankly you have no business calling yourself a programmer.